There is a story in the Mahabharata. Once Sri Krishna and the five Pandava brothers went hunting in the forest. By the time they had finished the hunt, the sun had gone down and night was about to fall. They realized that they couldn’t return to the kingdom that day and decided to spend the night in the forest. A cave was found and it was agreed that each person would stand guard for two hours while the others slept.
The youngest brother, Sahadeva, was given the first watch. He sat down at the entrance of the cave, holding all his weapons aloft and the others went to sleep inside. After an hour and a half, Sahadeva suddenly noticed a dwarf coming towards him from the forest. “Stop!” said Sahadeva.
“Who are you? Where are you going?” The dwarf said, ” You can see that I am a tiny dwarf. I want to fight you. “Sahadeva thought, ” Here is a foot-and-a-half tall dwarf, and here I am, a six-footer. I will win with no difficulty at all. “Therefore, for the sake of entertainment, he agreed to fight the dwarf. However, this was no ordinary dwarf. He defeated Sahadeva, tied him up with a rope, left him on the ground, and went away.
A little later, Nakula woke up. He went out and found Sahadeva missing. He called out to him and a faint voice replied, “I am here.” Nakula found him in the state in which the dwarf had left him. ” Who did this to you?” he asked. Sahadeva could not bring himself to say that he had lost to a small dwarf, so he replied, “I just felt like tying myself up and resting on the ground.” Nakula said, “Okay, go and sleep inside now, I will keep watch. “Towards the end of Nakula’s two hours, again the dwarf appeared and the same sequence was repeated. Next was Arjuna’s turn. He also found Nakula lying on the ground tied up with a rope. All the brothers faced the same situation, including Bhima and Yudhishthira.
Finally, Krishna came out and found Yudhishthira on the ground. Now, Yudhishthira was one who always spoke the truth. He told Krishna the whole story.
“I don’t understand what happened,” he said. “When my watch was just about to finish, this tiny dwarf appeared from nowhere and said ‘I want to wrestle you. ‘ When we started wrestling, something strange happened. The more I fought, the bigger the dwarf became until he was a huge giant and I was like a child before him. He easily caught hold of me, threw me on the ground, and tied me up. I am unable to understand what kind of a dwarf he was. “Krishna smiled and said, ” Never mind. Go and rest. Now that I am awake, I will see to him.
Just as dawn was about to break, Krishna saw the dwarf walking towards him. When the fellow was right before him, Krishna asked, “What brings you here?” The dwarf replied, “The same desire with which I came to your five friends and defeated them. I want to wrestle and fight you. “
Krishna prepared himself and the two started wrestling. Soon, the dwarf began to increase in size. Krishna understood the matter. He threw down his weapons, sat down quietly on the ground, and said to the dwarf, “You can hit me.” At this, the dwarf began to reduce in size. Krishna simply watched him. Finally, when he became tiny, Krishna tied him up in his peetambari (Krishna’s customary yellow wrap), and sat down.
Soon after, all the brothers woke up and came out of the cave. Seeing Krishna, they asked him, “Did someone come to see you while you stood guard?” Krishna replied, ” Ah yes, a tiny dwarf came. “The brothers asked, ” So what did you do with him? “Krishna replied, ” I did nothing. Here he is, tied up in my peetambari. “In a surprise, the Pandavas asked, ” What is the meaning of this? When we fought him, he continued to become bigger and you have him tied up in your wrap! “Krishna now told them who the dwarf was. It was anger. He said, ” Anger assumed the form of a dwarf and fought you. The more you fought the anger before you, the anger within you also rose. This made the anger confronting you bigger and bigger until it became so huge that it completely overpowered you and tied you to the ground.” Yudhishthira said, ” The matter has become clear now. You were the only one who recognized him. When you did not express anger in turn, he became so small that he was insignificant. “
This story signifies that negative qualities will always exist. If you try to remove them from your life, you will end up in a fight that you are bound to lose, as the more you struggle with negativities the stronger they become. Therefore, simply ignore them and focus on adopting positive qualities, tendencies, actions and behaviors in your life. The negativities will then go away on their own; they will become mute.
This is known as a spiritual awakening.
